Minister of State wants review into HSE services for people with disabilities in Donegal

Minister of State with responsibility for disabilities Anne Rabbitte has said she wants an independent review into the Health Service Executive in the north-west after the State’s health watchdog raised further serious concerns about its provision of care to people with disabilities in residential care in Donegal.

The Health Information Quality Agency (Hiqa) has questioned the Health Service Executive's fitness as a registered provider of centres for people with disabilities in the north-west.
Communication between Hiqa and the Health Service Executive (HSE) has highlighted "a very serious incident" regarding the online behaviour of a resident at one centre, RTÉ has reported.
Hiqa said it was not informed when this occurred in 2016, 2017 or in July 2021 and only received notification of the most recent incident in October last year, three months beyond the legal requirement for notification.
The latest revelations follow the so-called Brandon report which revealed more than 100 incidents of sexual abuse were carried out against at least 18 intellectually disabled residents at the HSE-run Ard Gréine Court facility in Stranorlar over 18 years.

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An executive summary of the report published in December found the abuse was carried out with the “full knowledge” of management. It said a lack of external management oversight and leadership from the Health Service Executive allowed the abuse to continue and escalate.
Ms Rabbite said she became aware of the latest incident at an unnamed residential centre just before Christmas in a letter from Hiqa which expressed “very serious concerns in relation to safeguarding in CHO1 north-west”.
Speaking to RTÉ, the Minister of State said she was “really shocked” by the letter from Hiqa.
“There appears to be a pattern emerging and it is a safeguarding issue for residences in CHO1 north-west, where we have repeated incidents and the development of a pattern. One has to question the staff’s understanding, management’s understanding about their roles and responsibilities around safeguarding.”

Ms Rabbite said she has not received any satisfactory explanation from the HSE to the issues raised by Hiqa.

She said is working with the department on drawing up terms of reference for an independent review of the HSE in the northwest which she hopes will begin “as soon as possible”.
“There is a worrying trend in CHO1 north-west,” she said.
“I would like there to be an independent review into CHO1 north-west… to establish and reassure the confidence within the families and the service users and also the staff, but also if there is something failing there, to support the HSE. We need to deal with this emerging continuous pattern.”